Precious Girl, Precious Savior

Today has been like every other day- mostly happy and full of Rebekah energy! I felt bad this morning because I fell back asleep after I heard Little One peeping at 6:30 and didn't wake up until 7:45! Yikes! She couldn't have been too mad or I would have heard her, I promise! However, I did miss that sound effects of her playing so vigorously with the adjacent wood blinds that they flew into the lamp (that I apparently left on last night), which jettisoned to the floor! Upon my arrival, Rebekah was just happy to see me and Josh subsequently assured me that she has indeed fallen back asleep for at least part of that time (he left early for work). Anyway, I am amazed at their forgiveness/forgetness capacity as she just looked up at me and said "Up!" meaning, please pick me up! We had a normal morning routine and I even rested a bit while she contentedly amused herself in her pack 'n play. After that, we went to the grocery store. (Evidently, Josh has been almost out of chocolate ice cream and that will never do, plus I had a hankering for some donut-holes I spied in the store!) As we were leaving the store and I was about to grab my little bundle out of the cart, she simply grinned at me, held up her arms, and said "Mama" in the most contented sigh I have ever heard- truly. I quickly grabbed her and assumed I would be forcing an unwanted snuggle, but to my shock and delight, she snuggled right in, wrapped her arms around my neck, and said "Mama" again and again, like I was a precious treasure to her. Honestly, I was tired and in task-mode but it was just what I needed! I held her for a while and she never let go. She just rested her head against my shoulder like it was just the perfect spot for viewing the world. (What would be better than getting to experience life and its excitement while wrapped in a totally secure, totally trust-worthy (scratch this morning's wake-up routine) embrace?) I just loved that it was I who represented that happy place for her. I finally set her in her car seat, but before I buckled her little smiley self in, she reached out for me again, as if to say "I could use some more of that" and I happily obliged. I picked her right back up and we repeated the exact same scene...standing next to the minivan with 2 open doors, blocking the space next to me, in the middle of the grocery store parking lot.

I mentioned that I am task-oriented. I am also a lover of routine and predictability. My desire is to rear Rebekah in such a way as to instill in her safety and love, as well as obedience and good discipline so that she is a blessing to others as well as to herself. We spend much of our day fighting over who will win in the "Don't touch your hair with those peanut butter hands!" battles and the like that I sometimes only see the little willful, determined, spunky side of my girl. Today I saw something new- a devoted, loyal, faithful, loving little pal who thought I was the best mama ever. It was a precious 10 minutes and I have done a lot of reflecting since then in no particular order.

1. I am thankful to the Lord that He is never too busy to love His children.
2. I pray to have the wisdom to drop tasks to love on my children anytime.
3. I pray that I, like Rebekah, will look upon Christ with adoring eyes and show my devotion
to Him for His sacrifice by resting in Him contentedly.
4. I pray to have great insight into my children so that I see them not as reflections of Josh and
me, but of their Creator, Who did indeed create them in His very own image.
5. I am thankful to the Lord for seeing Christ's righteousness in me and past my sin, for seeing
me as whole in Christ, yet woefully imperfect myself and still choosing to love me.

Little Munchkin

Just look at that face! Janene and Lisa from our church made all the staff baby girls whole outfits to wear to church- Parkview (our church) is celebrating its 75th Anniversary in September and we have been wearing the tee-shirts to advertise it. Janene and Lisa took it upon themselves to shrink the logo and make iron-ons and match whole outfits to it- so sweet!

Anyway, Josh preached Sunday (this Sunday, too) and put up her picture! This was it...



Rebekah is learning new words everyday!

Just in the last few days:

Door, knee, elbow (belbow), poop, turtle, up, & down, among her normal repertoire.

She also still mimics just about everything! I wiped my runny nose and threw the tissue in the toilet. She grabbed one, too, wiped her nose, and threw it into the toilet, at which point she flushed it. Today in the bath, she pretended to wash her body with the wash cloth and giggled the whole time. She also wants me to open her shorts drawer every morning so she can pull them ALL out...I often pretend I don't know what she wants, just so I can see how persistent she is (very) and also see her very excited face when I "figure" it out. Along the same vein, when she's snacky, she glues her eyes to the diaper bag, knowing that magical goldfish live inside.

She loves climbing in this toy from Carrie...yes, she has already fallen out of it, but like the stud she is, she shook it off and climbed right back in.



This is Rebekah and Dada (still her favorite word other than shoe) watching t.v.- don't even think about lecturing me about tv and babies- she watches maybe 7 minutes of Backyardigans which is about the only cartoon I can stomach- this was her realizing it was on- she loves the theme music- you really need to check out this show- each episode is choreographed to different music- really cool.


Everybody needs a Dada hug at some point..


I knew I should have immediately put up the laundry. She pulled out almost every garment in order to climb in...and out and in and out.




Just liked her cute legs.

More snuggle time with Josh.



On Tuesdays, Andrea takes both kids in the am and then I take them in the afternoon while she teaches. Poor Andrea- I at least get nap time! Anyway, Rebekah and David played very well together. It was a lot easier than I anticipated.

Verbal Odds and Ends (for those far away)

I love weekends and Mondays- the former is pretty obvious, the latter maybe more subtle, but it's actually because those days (mostly) are Daddy Days! Rebekah just lights up then, knowing that she gets extra time with her favorite guy! I joke about how much she says Dada, but I truly love it. In fact, Saturday morning, Josh roused earlier than I to hear her jabbering with intermittent "dadas" thrown in the mix. He couldn't help it- of course he went straight in- so precious! Even in my hazy, just waking up state (I sleep hard), I can tell the exact moment he goes in by the delighted "Dada!" that is squealed...Plus what's sweeter than hearing your man read your baby a story and peeking in to see her look up at him and grin, right before he tucks her in with a song? Love it. Last week, I rocked her to sleep for her nap (just the process of her snuggling in for a long hug is worth anything) and that night she lazily looked up at me and played with my hair while I sang her a song. Does it get any better than that?

She is almost all smiles or all intense concentration. I love to watch her double over in laughter as Dada tickles her or flies her upside-down, but I also love to see her determined, furrowed little brow as she studies something. Josh and I think she has managed to get a lot of each of good qualities- my eye sight, his hearing (PTL), my love of textures (Josh noticed yesterday at the mall that she reached out and grabbed every new material possible while I did likewise behind her, completely unaware- today she dragged her sweet little hand across every wall we strolled by), his curiosity, my passion, his attention to detail- seriously, you should see her fine motor skills as she turns something over and over as discovers how it works.

This morning Amanda tried to get her to sign please for something (Amanda loved R's full-body sign) and as she asked Rebekah to sign it, Rebekah simply said "please!" She is so verbal! She says shoe, Mama (rarely), Dada, Sam, yak (animal in her book), baby, bbs (blueberries), bb (blankie, note it is singular so as to be distinguished from bbs), please, book, uh-oh, no (frequently), & yes (not too often). This is my favorite stage so far!

Additionally, it has been a time of much cognitive correlation- she sees a baby and says baby. She sees us and calls us by name. She saw a dried wreath of bluish berries on our front door and said bbs! She calls Sam by name. She drops things and says uh-oh! She was playing with the refrigerator magnets and there's one of my mom for real estate and I asked her where's Grandmama? and she picked up the right magnet! She can bring you a toy and distinguish b/w animals. I am amazed at how much and how fast they learn!

I will work on more pictures, I promise! Too many words, not enough photos, I got it!

Greatest Day Ever

Josh went to the movies with his buddies last night and got in late. We're both still recovering from Mexico, so we were hoping Rebekah would make it until 7 am this morning. She has this habit of waking up early on days Josh doesn't go to work! Anyway, drum roll......8:10!!!!! That's right, 13 hours, my friends! We had an awesome morning as a family- Rebekah seems like such a big girl now! She is cruising around a ton now and talking a lot, too! We can ask her to get a certain toy and she will...amazing what she understands!

Anyway, we really enjoyed our time together and we took a family nap- seriously, 2 1/2 hours! Probably the longest non-sick nap she has taken since she was newborn! Delightful!

Then, we got ice cream together and took a walk, pulling Bunny in her wagon while she played with my umbrella. We also bought lemonade from the neighbor girls and they were excited we paid them $1 instead of 50 cents. ;)

All in all it was just a lovely lazy day!

The Dreaded Day

I carried her, I delivered her, I fed her in the middle of the night, I spend all day with her. Anyway, imagine my surprise today when Rebekah and I visit Daddy at his office. Rebekah sees his picture from our rehearsal dinner and points at him and says "Dada"- many, many times. She ignores my picture (you can imagine that Josh has many more pics of me than of himself, so that was a lot of ignoring). I also chose to ignore this discrepancy. Sheer coincidence, right? No...It continued something like this...

We're in the car and Daddy gets out to get in his own car.

R: Dada!

Me: That's right, Rebekah...Dada got in his own car and we'll see him at home.

R: Dada! (pointing)

Me: Uh-huh.

R: Dada! Dada!

Me: Can you say Mama?

R: (silence)

Me: Seriously, can you say Mama?

R: (shaking head) No.

Me: (laughing, but hurt) Rebes, how about Mama?

R: (shaking head more vehemently) No, no, no!

Me: Can you say Dada?

R: Dada!

Me: Can you say shoe?

R: Shoe!

Me: Can you say yes?

R: Yesh!

Me: (feeling more confident) Can you say Mama?

R: No, no, no!

*Side note: When I went to get Rebekah this morning, she was standing in her crib, in her pajama top and...diaper! She had taken her pants of and thrown them out of the crib.

My little Playful One

This was right before we left for Mexico- Rebekah with my lovely mother! I think this pic is just beautiful!

Right after we returned- they got her those pink Converse for my birthday...go figure! ;) Anyway, being a relatively new cruiser, Rebes was not thrilled with the stiff soles- she cried almost the whole time b/c they were cramping her style, I guess...


Josh got me a hammock for my birthday while in Mexico...Rebekah liked catapulting out of it more than staying in it.



This morning...This is THE LOOK...when I tell her "no" or discipline her, this is the look I get back. She turns her face down and looks up at me...it didn't take long to recognize this as my mom look...I guess she has seen it a couple times...

Tijuana

Well, we are safely back from Tijuana. (I would like to apologize for misspelling the name in previous posts- if only I had some exposure to Spanish I'd have known that... :)). Josh and I (as well as our team) had a great trip down to Mexico. We were gone for 8 days- the longest days of my life! Don't get me wrong- the time spent there was good, it was just without my baby girl! Mom and Phyllis took great care of her and all seemed to love the time together. Rebekah sprouted her 8th tooth, so they got the joy of some sleepless hours...sorry, guys! Rebekah learned so much from them- my favorites are that she now says shoe in a really high-pitched voice as she admires hers or your shoes and "men-men" for amen at the end of prayers (they must be more spiritual than we). They also taught her to back off the couch, which is really cool. Anyway, I was crazy anxious to get my hands and eyes on her and it seemed like it took forever to get back to her. She was waiting for me and I burst into tears the second I saw her! I just couldn't get enough- honestly, she seemed a little confused, then really happy to see us. We got some great hugs and kisses. Y'all know I was worried that she would walk before we got back- as much as the grandmothers tried, she waited to take her first steps (to me!!) until yesterday- her 13 month birthday!

As for Tijuana, it was wonderful experience, albeit tough. We took 50 people from our church of all ages and Josh's and my team of 10 (there were 5 teams of 10) was awesome!! Each team built a 12x12 ft or 12x16 ft "house" (read shack) per day in about 5 hours. We each had a staff member teach and guide us- we loved our leader! Her name is Alicia and she has a great heart for reaching the lost. We worked with her and her friend that is a boy ;), Chris, almost every day and they seriously were the best! I felt challenged to know more and be more active in reaching the lost of the world, be it Mexico, Iowa, or overseas.

Here are some shots of daily work across the border. We hand-built each house without the aide of power tools, so that was hard work. Hopefully, you can see the progress as we built as you scroll through. There are some shots of the families for whom we built, mostly the children who were preciosos! The 2 girls were darling and just wanted hugs and kisses from the gringa!
It never ceases to amaze me the little people are able to have and still survive. These people were so generous- each family sacrificed to make us a meal in appreciation- I was very humbled. Josh and I loved participating (in such a tangible way) in God's restorative work in the world. So often we think of people's spiritual separation from God and fail to see their very real physical needs.

Thank you, Lord for this opportunity and for so faithfully providing the way.







































These were from the last day as we waited for our plane- at Mission Beach in San Diego with the Kampmans. It was so nice to kick back a little bit on the beach.